REVIEW: ‘One Punch Man’ Season 3 Episode 12 — ‘Ultimate Lifeform’

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12, while entertaining in some ways, is negatively impacted by J.C. Staff’s inconsistent animation and production quality. Additionally, as the last episode of the season’s first half, it leaves a lot to be desired.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12 begins with Fubuki (Saori Hayami), King, Silverfang, and Bang navigating the halls of the monster association’s hideout. They eventually split up, and the three leave King behind. He’s then forced to navigate the dangerous halls alone while trying to keep up the fallacy of him being the strongest human alive.

The rest of the first half of One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12 shows glimpses of other heroes, specifically Pig God and Blackluster, fighting monsters. Like in previous episodes, Pig God just consumes monsters whole, and this time he’s approached by an equally glutinous monster much larger than him, but he consumes him easily regardless.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12 offers some action, but not everyone gets to show their strengths.

It’s a shame he’s never shown actually fighting anyone properly throughout the season, but now it seems obvious that he only defeats enemies by eating them. On the other hand, Blackluster has a long, drawn-out dialogue with an insect monster called Insect God about who has stronger muscles. The argument ends with the hero instantly defeating the monster in one punch.

Aside from proving the S-Class hero’s strength, the scene is basically useless, as it doesn’t provide a fight scene, nor does it add anything to the narrative. The scene then switches to Saitama (Makoto Furukawa), who encounters Pochi. He evades Pochi’s attack and lands a punch on him.

This marks the first time this season that Saitama has punched someone in a fully animated scene. While only a short segment of One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12, it is one of the few scenes that uses full animation. Although the character designs for both Pochi and Saitama lack detail, the scene is still impactful.

The fight between Tatsumaki and Gyoro Gyoro is another example of how this season lacks impact.

Saitama’s light punch creates a massive shockwave felt throughout the area near the Monster Association’s hideout. The scene then switches to Tatsumaki (Aoi Yûki) finally approaching  Gyoro Gyoro (Takehito Koyasu), and a fight between them quickly ensues. While Gyoro Gyoro goes all out, Tatsumaki barely breaks a sweat and puts him down with her tremendous psychic powers almost instantly. Not only does this scene feature another disappointing fight, but the character designs for both fighters are, yet again, lacking in many ways.

After being defeated effortlessly by Tatsumaki, Gyoro Gyoro cries out for King Orochi (Atsushi Ono), but he doesn’t respond because Saitama approaches him. After learning that Saitama almost killed Pochi, Orochi becomes interested in Saitama and decides to use him as a sacrifice to get stronger. He then rambles on about how he’s the ultimate life form and the pinnacle of evolution, only to be interrupted by Saitama.

Saitama points out that he’s heard all the villain monologues and that nothing will change, since he’ll end the fight with just one punch. While a short dialogue between two characters who have only just met, this scene is not only funny but also cool and engaging because Saitama, now a seasoned hero, is incredibly confident in himself and also incredibly aware of his strength.

The dialogue between Saitama and King Orochi is the highlight of  One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12. 

This, along with his incredibly jaded demeanor, makes the scene highly engaging, making it the best part of One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12, especially since he does, in fact, end the fight in one punch. The scene showing Saitama running up to Ororchi and finishing him off with a punch is also well animated and flashy. It is also well supported by the epic track heard in similar scenes in previous seasons.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12 ends with an after-credits gag scene as King navigates the monsters’ hideout alone and encounters a shape-shifting monster, whom he defeats with his intimidating face. Instead of ending with a major fight scene, it ends with a gag scene, which is disappointing.

Overall, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12, like previous episodes, is held back by inconsistent animation quality and is filled with mostly stills and gifs. The episode also ends disappointingly, as most of the fights from the previous episode remain unresolved. It also emphasizes that the first half of the season could have been better paced if not for the constant fluff at the start. Now that the second part of the season is confirmed, one can only hope that several of these issues will be fixed.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 12 is streaming now on Crunchyroll. 

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